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Hi All,
Persistent Systems is giving 10% variable on gross annual CTC. HR says you would receive minimum 70% of variable pay every month and remaining 30% will credited once a year at the end.
Does anyone has idea on this? Can I believe this and include 70% variable in my take home
Persistent Systems Limited
No hike letters today? For anybody?
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Does anyone have experience with Ben Glass’s “Great Legal Marketing” programs? https://greatlegalmarketing.com
I ordered a free “starter kit” from his company and received a decent-sized box with some books and audio CD’s. Haven’t listened to the CD’s yet, but the books aren’t bad, with plenty of practical advice.
Now he’s running a promotion where you can get two months of his basic-level course for just $19.95 to cover the cost of shipping. It seems that Ben is one of the better-regarded legal marketing “gurus” out there.
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I want to say thanks for asking and thanks to Attorney 1 for the advice. I've been considering focusing more on this area too, so it's good to know what I'd be getting into. What's the best way to market myself if I want to become a go-to for landlord-tenant cases?
I did word of mouth and relationships. We already represented some property developers who were landlords. I also was doing a good deal of pro bono, and landlord tenant matters were coming to a head during Covid, so smaller landlords would often call the police looking for help. The police knew me because I did so much pro bono criminal work and knew I’d won some housing court cases so they referred a couple of nasty tricky cases to me where landlords had tried to proceed representing themselves and failed. Landlords talk, so after I won for them, they told their friends, and it snowballed from there.
You might try befriending police officers and building genuine relationships because smaller mom and pop landlords will start with the police when they want someone out if they don’t know how evictions work or when they find out about illegal activity on their property.
You might also try publishing guides to help landlords and just being available for limited free advice on the phone, knowing that those people might not hire you, but if you help and they tell their friends, you may get business that way. Other lawyers may refer too because many lawyers don’t want to touch landlord tenant cases, and they’d be happy to have someone to kick the case over to. I focused on relationships, and the rest sort of happened organically with no marketing. I’m not s firm owner. I was a midlevel. We didn’t do landlord tenant law when I started there, but I got so many referrals from landlords people started calling asking for me. The partners let me in on the financials for my cases and let me charge whatever I wanted. I found bulk flat fees were best. I trained the receptionist to do the simple warrants of eviction (90%) and notices to quit as they were the cheapest labor within the firm. The more difficult tricky cases I handled myself, even on a flat fee. Getting a reputation for winning the hard cases was what kept getting me so many referrals. That work is really bulk work though. You’re not going to make all your money on a few cases like you might in mass torts
If you don’t like formulaic rinse and repeat things done in bulk and cost sensitive clients I don’t recommend. It’s work that 90% of the time will be done by your paralegal because it’s changing party names and addresses. Clients don’t want to pay a ton for it, so you won’t be able to charge your hourly rate for doing them. You’ll end up flat feeing it unless the case is more complex. But because of that not many lawyers want to do them, so you won’t have as much competition. Also, where I live, judges tend to side with the tenants even when the person was working full time, has no children or extenuating circumstances or defenses, and just failed to pay rent for 6 months because they didn’t feel like it.
Likewise, you’ll have landlord clients who are clearly in the wrong as far as living conditions go who refuse to admit they’re wrong, and that can make life difficult.
I did it during Covid for a little while and beyond that until I lateraled to do M&A. It was easy to get clients because not many lawyers want to do the work, so you can quickly build a book of business. To make it profitable, you’ll need a good deal of competent non-attorney support staff under you
Thanks so much!
You’re welcome! It’s easy to train someone else to do the work unlike most litigation so you don’t need an experienced assistant. Cheap remote VAs in low cost of living areas should be able to do it, so that’s a positive. Good news is it’s a good client base if you want to later have work for them with new acquisitions and real property work, and it’s easy to get referrals from them because there isn’t as much competition. Bad news is you’ll spend a good deal of your days in court, but cases move fast. You may want a first year lawyer under your after you build up your client base to go litigate those cases for you to free up your day
I don’t file landlord/tenant cases, but encounter them all the time in my practice area (consumer bankruptcy). I agree with the notion that the work mostly involves fill-in-the-blanks templates and flat fees.
I’m in a very pro-landlord state, and it’s usually quick and easy to get a non-paying tenant evicted. So by the time I get involved, it’s almost always just to discharge the money judgment entered against the tenant, if any.
On that note, some landlords just want the tenant out, whereas others also want an award of damages and will use tools such as garnishment to collect it. If the client is in the latter group, there’s the potential for the attorney to make more money.
As for representing both landlords and tenants, I’d avoid that due to the potential of future conflicts (real or perceived).
Where I practice — a metro area with a population of about 2 million — most property management companies have an established relationship with one of a few large-volume firms. So if I were going to represent landlords, I’d start with “mom-and-pop” owners.
In this market, I don’t see representing tenants being economically viable, unless you want to work for legal aid. Almost all L/T cases here are evictions for non-payment. If the client didn’t have the money to pay their rent, how are they going to pay you? But — as A2 suggests — you might be able to make it work if your jurisdiction is pro-tenant.
Thank you so much, this is helpful!
I practice in a state with a specialized Housing Court.
It's very pro-Tenant and there is a steep learning curve, but if you get the specific statutes and rules for housing down you can get a level of mastery in pretty short time it's going to surpass anyone who doesn't regularly practice in Housing Court.
In order to build a successful practice around L/T work, you should try to land one or two of the bigger property management companies in your area, or an institution that does a lot of subsidized housing. These groups are take a more professional view of the process, and are less likely to go off reservation in their behavior and more likely to see your rate as a cost of doing business.
There's good money to be made on the tenant side as well, but you have to vet your clients carefully.
Thanks for the wonderful insight, A1. I don't have that much experience in that area. But I think it will be a good experience.